Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

As a nurse, I know how difficult it can be for people to manage the health needs of themselves or their loved ones. It is complex, often tiring and often stressful to navigate managing your health or the health of your family. Often individuals have to calculate multiple health concerns, think about multiple medications, visit multiple health services. It's hard enough for many patients to remember their care regimes, let alone deal with the stressors that come with illness. They shouldn't need to deal with the further stress of financial strain on top of their illness.

Of the 19 million Australians eligible for savings under this bill, people filling just one script a month could save around $150 a year. Those filling two scripts a month could save around $300 a year. That is a lot of money for say someone on the minimum wage. The bill will also allow optional discounting by pharmacies for specific PBS prescriptions via an optional reduction in the maximum price of a medicine. We recognise that it is an established practice for some pharmacists to discount medicine to at or below the current general patient co-payment. Instead of this meaning that the new co-payment price leads to an increase for some patients, these amendments will ensure that no patient is worse off. This means, for example, that Sophia, who lives with elevated intra-ocular pressure, a leading risk factor for glaucoma, will continue to pay the $27 her local pharmacy charges her for each script of her eye drops. To ensure no patient is worse off, the amount paid by the patient will still be counted towards the safety net threshold.

The current system, as I said, is complex for people to navigate. Under current policy, if a patient was given 40 scripts to fill in one year and all were priced at or above the current $42.50 co-payment rate, then they would have paid $1,445 for the first 34 scripts. At that point of reaching the safety net, their additional six scripts will cost them less but will still bring their total cost to $1,485. Under our policy, if a patient had 40 scripts to fill, they could fill all of those and have spent only $1,200 in total, which means they don't reach the safety net threshold and they will have saved $285. That's a real difference to out-of-pocket costs.

From 1 January 2023 this bill will enable pharmacists to continue to provide a discretionary discount for drugs with a price between the new and the old co-payments, $30 and $42.50 respectively. Establishing this discretionary discount means that Sophia should continue to pay only $27 for her tablets. This is creating real savings for families over the long term. As we know, there are so many Australians who require medication over a long period of time.

Over 1.3 million Australians, more than five per cent of the population, live with diabetes. One treatment option for diabetes is a combination of pills which are on the PBS. Ann is 35, she has diabetes and she needs that medication. She has been prescribed tablets, and she has to take them every single day. This means filling 13 scripts a year at a cost of $42.50 per script. With rising costs, Ann has tried to find extra work after hours and extra days to help contribute to her medical costs. Under this bill, from 1 January 2023 Ann will only pay $30 per script, saving her $162.50 per year. Ann needs this medication so she can thrive in her day-to-day life.

These are the kinds of reforms that a Labor government delivers. This is what Labor does. Having spent so much of my life in the healthcare system as a nurse, I'm proud to stand and support it here today. This bill will ease pressure on families and will do so quickly. I'm pleased to hear the debate on this issue and I look forward to hearing from others in the House and the Senate this week. I urge the opposition and the crossbench to really think about the positives in the legislation. It's important that it passes this year so that savings to households can come into effect from 1 January next year. That's a real boost to household budgets in the short term that our Labor government is pleased to be providing.

The reforms are needed now. We came into government with a promise to address the issues plaguing our health system left by the previous government. We came into a government with a promise to strengthen Medicare, because we understand Australians deserve access to the medicines they need and their postcode should not determine the healthcare they get. They shouldn't have to sacrifice and scrimp to afford the medications they need to get through the day. This bill delivers on that commitment. It delivers a fairer deal for all Australians. I hope all members in this place will support it.

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